A gap year (taking a year out/ a year off/ ...

) between school or
college and higher education or a job can be a very exciting,
challenging and valuable opportunity. You can be a volonteer abroad,
do some work experience to build up your skills, discover new
cultures...

Taking a gap year out can look good on a CV. Some employers may
appreciate that you have spent some time overseas (to improve a
language, your education, learn new skills, share your knowledge...)

Which gap year type are you?

Gappers might be charitable volunteers, nostalgic hippies, sports

enthusiasts or even career-minded business types with one eye on
their CV. Andy Sharman takes a light hearted look at those seeking a
world of adventure

The Volunteer

These do-gooders are the lifeblood of gap year organisations and the
communities they serve. But you don’t have to be an angel who’s
always dreamed of campaigning against landmines and has spent all
their Christmas holidays playing bugle for the Salvation Army.

“They’re just young people who want to have fun, meet other young
people, work in a group, and see another country,” says John Lawler,
chief of Madventurer, the community development specialists.

“It’s when they leave the project that they get enthused about the
ethical side and how the project has actually contributed to the local
community.”

Africa is the typical destination for these willing workers and,

alongside a number of projects worldwide, Madventurer works with
communities in five African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South
Africa and Uganda. Gappers get the chance to live as part of the local
society while undertaking development work, which often involves
construction.

Madventurer volunteers have completed some 200 large building

projects, from primary schools and health clinics to orphanages and
even loos. “We’re always asked to build public toilets because it helps
with sanitation. They’re not the most glamorous of projects but
they’re always fun to get involved with and it’s really very rewarding,”
insists Lawler.

The main thing for these gappers is to make sure the project is
community development and not colonialism. “Check out the
organisation,” says Lawler. “Make sure the ethics behind it are similar
to yours.” He says that it helps to go with an independent company,
such as Madventurer, and that you can’t go wrong with practical
development: it’s easy to see how a block of toilets helps a
community.

“With this kind of real development, you actually see something and
you get the feedback from the locals that comes with practical
volunteering. When the volunteers look back on the trip, the bit
they’ve enjoyed the most is the part where they’ve lived in the
community: and you don’t get that through backpacking.”

The Hippy

The typical tie-dye gapper is a common breed. Emanating from the

finer schools of rural Britain, or the choking smog of the inner-cities,
they yearn to escape the shackles of their staid upbringing and get
down like Dennis Hopper.

Tired of sanitised travel, they seek not tourism, but unbridled cultural
immersion. If this sounds like you, then you’re in luck. The fabled
Istanbul to Kathmandu hippy trail of the Sixties and Seventies has
been resurrected by those crazy guys at Ozbus. A combination of
buses, coaches, trains, and even the odd camel, apparently, will take
you on a majestic journey through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and
Nepal (www.hippietrail.com). You could even do the whole hog from
London to Sydney (www.oz-bus.com).

With departures in September and March, a 49-day hippy trip costs up

to £2,450. “This kind of trip was going on back in the day: a case of
young kids from North America and Europe going off to find
themselves through spiritual enlightenment,” says Mark Creasey,
director of Ozbus.

The old trail used to take the idealistic hordes of 20-year-olds through
Afghanistan in VW camper vans. Nowadays, Afghanistan is closed for
business, the mothership is more likely to be a Volvo 9700 coach (or
something less snazzy), and the clientele will be a mixture of career-
breakers, middle-agers and your usual gap year school leavers.

But there’s a benefit to having different age groups, says Creasey. “It
makes things more interesting and, if you’re homesick at all, you can
turn to someone who’s older and has a bit more experience.” Besides,
what could be more hippy than mixing with as many different kinds of
people as possible?

You’ll discover most of the exotic places the earth has to offer on this
tour. You might even find yourself, man. “It’s a fantastic route and it’s
following in the footsteps of history,” says Creasey.

The Careerist
Of all the gappers, these guys are the ones to watch. These are the
savvy types who see the expense of university, see the congestion of
the graduate market, and decide to set themselves apart. There’s
nothing more attractive to employers than someone who has gone
out there and done a gap year for a reason: and if that reason is to
get work experience, all the better.

”Graduate recruitment is very competitive, and an increasing number

of employers are looking for graduates who’ve got industry
experience,” says Mike Barnard of Milkround.com, the graduate
recruitment website. “Banking, accounting and finance firms tend to
encourage placements and work experience, and doing this in your
gap year will set you apart from the other people applying.”

But it’s not a case of just strapping on a suit and heading down to the
City. “The best way to use a gap year is to get placements in a few
different industries,” says Barnard. If you want to get into something
competitive and creative such as film, journalism or music, then it’s
even more vital as there are only a finite number of positions,” says
Barnard.

And if you want to get into TV, being a runner is one of the lowest
paid jobs you can get. So why not get it out of the way during your
gap year? But don’t just limit yourself to the UK. “Quite a lot of people
are considering going abroad for relevant work experience, which can
tie in with travelling,” says Barnard. “It shows you have world
experience.”

The Sportsman

If you’re the sporty kind, it doesn’t get much better than taking a year
out to play and coach your way across the globe. These guys are the
lucky ones blessed with sporting talent and are happiest when on the
pitch, piste or playa. (And just as happy off it.) “Our travellers are
passionate young people who love sport,” says James Burton, co-
director of Global Sports Xperience, formerly Gap Sports (www.global
sportsxperience.com). “They are really excited about sharing their
sports knowledge and experience with other people while they coach,
play or train abroad.”

Global Sports Xperience offers sporting chances to everyone and

anyone across a range of disciplines. For the supremely talented,
there are academy courses to hone your skills in football, cricket,
athletics, and so on – just in time for your assault on the BUSA
rankings at university. If you’ve got the balls for it, you could test your
mettle with white-water rafting in New Zealand. Or you could just chill
out on an African dhow boat in Mozambique.

For those with a taste for white powder, you could head to Quebec
and become a qualified snowboard instructor (basically a passport to
the finest resorts of the world). Water-based fun could see you kite-
surfing in the Dominican Republic. If you want a pummelling, you
could go a couple of rounds with Accra’s finest on a boxing course in
Ghana. Or for those with an eye on becoming the next Hoff, why not
get some lifeguard training with the pros down at Manly Beach,
Australia?

“Some are looking for a career in sport and want to develop their
talents, others are sporty people who want to retrain or qualify as an
instructor in the sports industry,” says Burton. “Whatever the kind of
placement they choose, our gappers just love spending time with
other sporty people and often get involved in playing and training
with the locals while overseas.”

The Explorer

It would be pretty easy to classify these chaps as “science geeks” –

taking soil samples, poking holes in ice, measuring tree girths. But
talk to Mark Davison, co-director of VentureCo, the expedition
specialists, and you get a very different picture.

“Our gappers are very easy to pigeonhole,” he says.” They’re bright,

yes, but what always impresses me is the spectrum of their interests:
for example, they could be a little bit sporty, but with an interest in
the arts.” So, not science at all. “There’s no formal science,” says
Davison. “It’s just about the experience of being in a different
environment.”

Typically costing around £4,000 including flights, VentureCo gap

years could have you doing anything: walking along ice caps and
glaciers in Argentine Patagonia; trekking in the Torres del Paine
natural park in Chile; scouting through jungles and rowing on the
headwaters of the Amazon in Equador; or indulging in a bit of
Darwinian analysis on the Galapagos (www.venture co-
worldwide.com).

Gap years like this often come with 12-page kit list and a warning that
you will only be given “sufficient calories” by way of food. But
VentureCo is different. For instance, on trekking trips, they don’t
actually do any technical climbing. It’s all far more rounded than that,
and your three month trip will include an intensive language course
and work experience with a local NGO.

So do you have to be a tough guy to do this kind of gap year? “It’s

attitude, rather than hardiness,” says Davison. “Most of our gappers
have done bronze or silver Duke of Edinburgh, which simply shows
that their attitude, their willingness to do something for others.”

And what about that “geek” charge? Well, you’ll come back with
language skills and enough confidence to blag your way through
university. “The way these gappers change over the course of the
expedition, you just wouldn’t recognise them,” says Davison.